Okay, with nine options in, vote for whatever orgs you want to start out with. Vote is by preference, so there's no limit on the amount of organizations you can vote for. Submissions will remain open throughout the quest, and will be added by further votes as organizations fail, merge, or as the limit is expanded.
[] Twin Cities: For The People!
[] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[] The New October Movement
[] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[] Queer Nation
[] The Love Foundation
[] The Institute for Social Ecology
[] The New Party
[X] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[X] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[X] The Institute for Social Ecology
[X] The New Party
[X] The Love Foundation
[X] Queer Nation
Huh. Okay that's not what I was expecting. Curious to see how voting works then? Will votes represent actions by individual orgs, rather than a proportion of a single selected orgs membership?
Voting for everything that has something other than electoral as a primary focus.
[x] Twin Cities: For The People!
[x] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[x] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[x] The New October Movement
[x] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[x] Queer Nation
[x] The Love Foundation
[x] The Institute for Social Ecology
There's no limit on what you can vote on now, but when the proper turns commence, I'm thinking of a two org limit per person (similar to American Experiment). And if votes for a given org then contradict one another, that represents internal division on what to do.
[x] The Institute for Social Ecology
[x] Twin Cities: For The People!
[x] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[x] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[x] The New October Movement
[x] Queer Nation
[x] The Institute for Social Ecology
[x] Twin Cities: For The People!
[x] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[x] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[x] The New October Movement
[x] Queer Nation
[x] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[X] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[X] The Institute for Social Ecology
[X] The New Party
[X] The Love Foundation
[X] Queer Nation
[x] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[x] The New October Movement
[X] Queer Nation
[x] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[x] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[x] Twin Cities: For The People!
[x] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[x] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[x] The New October Movement
[x] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[x] Queer Nation
[x] The Love Foundation
[x] The Institute for Social Ecology
Figured I'd throw in a late submission since there's fewer southern and rust belt orgs in the pool.
Name: The Blair Mountain Brigade
Locale: Logan County, West Virginia
Aims and strategies: Founded by a group of disgruntled coal miners to push back against the practice of mountaintop removal and the associated environmental degradation and job loss. They're focused primarily on pushing for increased unionization and a return to the militant union action of the early 1900s.
[X] Twin Cities: For The People!
[X] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[X] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[X] The Institute for Social Ecology
[X] The New Party
[X] The Blair Mountain Brigade
Like, there was an extensive trolley system in the city through the 50s when there was some fuckery that got them all ripped out and replaced with busses?
There's a pervasive conspiracy theory that streetcars and trolleys were intentionally and systematically destroyed by a coalition of local governments and car manufacturers. It ascribes intent where there is only material causes-
except in Minneapolis. There actually was a conspiracy there.
[X] Twin Cities: For The People!
[X] The Knights of the Lambda Calculus
[x] Black Panther Movement (Milwaukee)
[X] The New October Movement
[X] The Pittsburgh Labor Club
[X] Queer Nation
In what is to follow, the turns will be run according to my patented SCIOR system, a derivation of the FRACaS system I've been using for Uncommon Wealth. SCIOR is Latin for "I am known", and you will use it to make yourselves known through the power of your grassroots movements. It consists of five primary attributes:
SIZE simply stands for the size of your organization. I'm mostly counting full-time contributors, and not just anyone who happens to show up at one of your protests. The number itself is a rough estimation on a logarithmic scale, so level 1 means you have about a dozen people at your disposal, level 2 means several hundred, level 3 is a few thousand, and so on.
CAPITAL is similar to size, but describes the money at your disposal. It's once again measured logarithmically; I assume that your orgs can bring at least a few hundred bucks together, so level 2 is pretty much the minimum.
INITIATIVE concerns the amount of actions you can put in a plan per turn. The type of actions you can perform are moderated by your Size and Capital, naturally. Some actions will require multiple successful rolls; these can either be stretched out over time, or you can commit multiple dice to them.
ORGANIZATION determines how many more dice will be rolled than the total amount in your plan, and thus how many of the lowest dice will be subtracted after rolling. So say you had an initiative of 3, and an organization of 2. This means that 5 dice will be rolled (3+2), and the lowest two will be taken away. Organization can potentially hit 0, in which case you're an ineffective movement that's failing as much as it's succeeding. A negative organization score means game over for your org.
RESPONSIVENESS, finally, is a feature you won't control directly, but which will still prove vital to your efforts. It stands for the amount of spontaneous actions you'll be able to take in response to stuff happening in the world. Like, say a major protest wave is unleashed, then your org will only be able to participate if there is a sufficient amount of Responsiveness. If there are multiple opportunities to choose between, I might either make my own call based on an estimation of your org, roll randomly for it, or ask you to make the choice yourself. It'll depend. Importantly, Organization also applies to responsiveness, since even spontaneous responses benefit from a well-run organizational apparatus. I might introduce a malus to that, though, should you become implausibly good at responding to sudden events.
That's how the turns will work! If you have any questions, let me know. The first turn should go live soon.
Suggest an action: At any time, you may propose an action for whatever organization you've chosen to plan for. Presuming your suggestion is not too implausible altogether, I will tell you what will be necessary for the action to succeed, and you can keep it as part of your plan.
Make a zine (Capital 2 required): This is the golden age of zines, small self-published works with a decidedly radical slant. No matter what kind of org you are in this day and age, you'll be sure to put out a zine at one point or another. The question is, what will we focus on in ours?
Subject: [write-in]
Found a local newspaper: Although a bit more complicated to produce than a mere zine, simple newspapers are still a staple of the radical milieu. Even if you're not some latter-day Trot, they're well worth publishing, if only to train an internal cadre of journalists. Plus, if you write your own news, there'll at least be one publication you know to be reliable.
Frequency of publication: weekly (Capital 3 required), daily (Capital 4 required)
Create a magazine: A magazine is really just a fancier, more elaborate zine, with a selection of finely crafted themed articles. This can be the first step to gaining national renown and prestige, and can bring it a useful bit of funds as well.
Frequency of publication: quarterly (Capital 4 required), monthly (Capital 5 required)
Promote your organization: People should know about your organization if they're going to join it. But if you know your members, and know where more of them might be found, recruitment can be a piece of cake. Actually getting your members to do good work, however, is another matter entirely.
In the streets
At protests
On the internet
Other: [write-in]
Organize a protest: How will the people know of your cause if you don't show up in the streets? There's always plenty to protest about, and there's always a chance that your manifestation will make the ruling class a little less complacent. The latter can also be bad for you, though.
Cause: [write-in]
Protest strategy: [write-in]
Fundraising Campaign: At the present time, money is what makes the world go round. Unfortunately, this means you won't be able to do anything without it. By fundraising for a specific initiative, though, you can overcome your chronic penury and make headway on something that might otherwise be beyond your means.
Cause: [write-in]
Method of fundraising: [write-in]
Organize Local Communities: The whole point of a grassroots organization is to bring ordinary people together, and to use your collective power towards liberatory ends. Thus, instead of confining yourself to a core of ideologically correct cadres, you need to step out into the wider worlds, and make sure that the powerless masses of this neoliberal hellscape can find power in their mere assembly.
Neighborhoods: The simplest form of community organization consists of various neighborhood initiatives, such as beautification schemes, neighborhood watches, or local cookouts. While some of these programs sound rather bourgeois/middle class/white, perhaps we can put a liberatory spin on them. Or find some new activity that suits us more. (requires two successful rolls) (specify neighborhood)
Tenants: Tenant organization used to be a bigger thing a few decades ago, and housing has only gotten more precarious since then. It's time to revive the tenants union as part of our fight against parasitic capital! (requires three successful rolls) (specify city/state)
Workers: The noblest and most ancient kind of community organization focuses on the working class as such, recognizing our power as the stewards of social production. By threatening to withhold our labor, and using the union form to make our collectivity felt, great changes are possible. (requires four successful rolls) (specify type of workers)
Support a Political Campaign: Icky as it may be, electoral politics can still make a marginal difference in specific political situations. And with several new third parties rising from the ground up, there might even be a chance of breaking the party duopoly, at least on a local level.
Specify position and candidate
Type of support: volunteering/campaign donations/other
Reach out to other organizations: As mass movements, our strength is fundamentally found in numbers. Or, more accurately, in a network of sympathetic community members. While physical proximity is often useful, even distant organizations can lend us important cultural, intellectual, and even financial resources. But to create the benefits of such a radical social ecosystem, we do need to reach out to our fellows first.
Specify the organization(s) you're attempting to affiliate yourselves with
Start a Reading Group: You're going to be lousy theorists if you don't know what you're talking about. By first reading into the milieu you're trying to be a part of, you might be able to make some useful contributions to it. And what is a rhizome anyway?
Build a website: There's this new kind of internet architecture called the World Wide Web, and it's apparently pretty useful. Although most of the initial 'websites' have been the work of academic institutions, your club of futurists shouldn't be left out. This could be the next big thing on the information superhighway!
Develop a piece of open source software: Cultural theorizing is all well and good, but the Open Source Future is not going to build itself. By developing some useful pieces of software yourself, and freely distributing them to the masses, you can catalyze the culture you're trying to create.
Organize a Black Bloc: This novel protesting strategy, originating in the German Autonomist movement, protects the identity of radical anti-fascist protestors through the use of all-black clothing. Since this strategy broadly fits within our ideology, and contributes to our safety from retaliation, we might as well take it up.
Start a Reading Group: As our synthesis of Maoist and Anarchist ideology is yet ill-defined, we would do well to set up a basic reading group on the matter. By taking up the major texts of each tradition, we can see if and how they can be made to accord with one another.
Recruit from the RCP: Many of our initial members were formerly part of the so-called Revolutionary Communist Party. They left this organization because they saw it for what it was: a homophobic political cult run by the renegade Bob Avakian. Since we know many of the people who are still caught up in that org, and suspect that at least some of them hold the same doubts that we did, it may be worth reaching out. May the NOM become what the RCP was supposed to be!
In Indianapolis: To show the enthusiasm of the Black community in Indianapolis, local activist Mmoja Ajaba has collected over 4000 signatures. McGee's personal blessing could give a further boost to that organizing potential.
In Dallas: Aaron Michaels has been running a radical radio show in Dallas for a few years, and now he stands ready to answer McGee's "call to arms", though perhaps in a more militant way than we had intended. It is Texas, after all.
Elsewhere (write-in): Plenty of Black communities throughout the country are eager to revive the Panther Spirit. We need only reach out to them.
Local Mutual Aid: Defending your community also means taking care of them. The original Black Panthers knew this; their own mutual aid efforts were never just idle charity, but part of a larger strategy of Black Power. To build this power ourselves, we need to look into the immediate needs of Milwaukee's Black population, and then take care of them as best we can.
Invite BPP speakers: Many old Black Panthers–the ones that weren't felled by government repression–have recently been writing new biographies, both of themselves and of the wider movement. By inviting them to speak at our own venues, we can drive the community towards further action, and learn from the lived experience of these Black revolutionaries.
Provide Security at Queer Gigs: You're not a community if you can't get together, and you can't get together if the bigots are trying to stop you. By ensuring some measure of physical security at queer events and gatherings, you can prevent the immediate coercions which come with social marginalization. From there, the cultural battle can be waged.
Queer History Project: A big component of marginalization is the cultivation of ignorance, to make it seem like 'your kind' is a historical abnormality, or an abomination to nature. Radical education can be the antidote to this, at least among the marginalized themselves. By working towards the preservation and promotion of queer history, we will make sure that our dear predecessors are not forgotten.
Refound the Burlington Greens: Back in the late 1980s, the ISE tried to assemble a group of social ecological activists for their attempt at grassroots electoral organizing. It didn't work out too well, and the initiative is long dead now. But maybe we can give it another try? An entryist strategy in the local Green or Progressive parties seems plausible, at least. These organizations always need more warm bodies, and we can bring some ideological heft to their vague liberal leftism.
Specify the focus of your electoral approach
Expand the Summer School: The main purpose of the ISE is to provide radical education in the areas of politics, ecology, and the wider social sciences. Much of this work is done over the summer, when groups of eager students will come together for a few days to learn what Social Ecology might mean for their lives, as well as the world at large. By expanding this summer school, including its promotion at various nearby academic institutions, we can enrich our perspective even further.
Optional: describe the expanded courses
The Bookchin Die (mandatory): Say, what's Murray been working on?
Write in what Murray Bookchin's been writing this year
I'm not sure I already want to be adding new orgs. But you can certainly propose one, and it'll be among the candidates when we vote on adding a new organization.
